December 13, 2006

A stranger walking into the meeting room Friday at the close of the week-long Lean Six Sigma training session for members of the Prairie du Chien Police Department could be excused for thinking he or she had walked into a revival meeting, since the tone was positively euphoric.

The team had completed a process begun Monday, Dec. 4 to streamline the procedure for written police reports from the time a call or complaint is received until the final disposition of the paperwork, and to describe their level of satisfaction as high would be an understatement.

The week was one of transformation not only of process but of attitudes. Garth Frable, outgoing city planner who had encouraged participation in the process, described the initial meeting as one of "a lot of resistance and crossed arms." Jim Scott, of TBM Consulting Services, explained that the group went into the process as individuals, and finished as a team.

The plan that emerged at the end of the week had participants eager to implement the changes. Bob Niedziejko, of the Prairie du Chien Police Department, admitted he started out the process highly suspicious. "In 25 years," he said, I've heard a lot of promises but nothing changed." Niedziejko said police departments are notorious for being resistant to outsiders telling them how to do their job, but, he said, "This is a change in the philosophy of the department as a whole in terms of training. It makes everyone accountable."

The process starts with mapping out the current state of affairs, in this case, the way police reports are currently written and handled. The process identifies the steps, the time and people involved, the number of decisions required and all the other things which go into getting the paperwork completed and handed over to the proper authority. After that, the process is analyzed, and flaws and roadblocks identified. Then the group creates a new and improved state, and looks at what must change for the process to work.

The group started out with the following specific goals: to close non follow-up cases within three working days; to have instant incident reports completed before the end of a shift; to increase conviction or resolution rate by 100 percent, and to have all reports defect free.

The results were amazing. The current system has 54 steps to completion; the new plan reduces those steps to 38. Lead time was reduced from 1,453 minutes to 923 minutes, and the total number of delays from 21 to 10. The new plan also reduces the number of decisions made from 13 to seven and the number of handoffs from nine to seven. The number of loops in the process was reduced from four to zero. Weekly meetings with the district attorney and county attorney were added to the process to make it more efficient.

Leading the participants in their efforts were team leader Eric Klofstad, assisted by Corri Schmidt and Tamera Fenske, all of 3M. 3M provided the team at no charge to the city. Scott, who has conducted sessions throughout the U.S. and in several foreign countries, donated his services. Frable's wife, Teresa McMahon, with the office of Lean Enterprises in Iowa, was largely responsible for persuading Scott to do so.

One after another, participants and observers expressed their satisfaction with what had happened. Julie Cipra, 911 coordinator for Crawford County, said she could not think of a better way to start off the new combined city/county dispatch center than by clearing out some of the delays.

Frable stated, "The bottom line is we want to improve citizen satisfaction with the system. We want to make sure what we send to the city attorney and the district attorney is effective. This process will achieve our goals."

Scott pointed out that the department still has some work ahead "In any organization," he said, "25 percent of the people are early adapters, 50 percent are undecided, and the bottom 25 percent are ïanchor draggers.'" The key, he said, is not to let the anchor draggers have undue influence on the undecided group, and to keep in mind that they may once have been early adapters who had experienced one too many promises and subsequent disappointments.

Police Chief Mike King did not expect disappointments. King stated, "What we have is something that will transform our whole organization in the way we do business. There's never been anything like this. We've been trying without success to fix this system for eight and a half years. My advice to other department leaders is to run toward this system as fast as you can go."

The process will be introduced to the entire police department Wednesday and can then be implemented immediately.

Mayor Cheryl Mader thanked all those who contributed to making the week a success and said: "I look forward to seeing the improvements that come out of this and to seeing this kind of process incorporated city wide. We need to give our citizens what they want."

The next department to undergo the process will be the sewer and water department, which will examine its billing procedures. This will occur some time after the start of the new year.

Lean Six Sigma is a methodology used to cut out waste, increase the speed of a process and improve quality.

Prairie du Chien High School graduate Matt de Julio Antoine won two gold medals and set a new track record in the men's skeleton competition in Lake Placid, New York on Dec. 2.

The gold medals and track record are new personal milestones for Matt in his quest for a berth on the United States Olympic Team for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Matt, 21, has been competing in skeleton since the 2003-2004 season and has made great progress, steadily climbing up in the ranks.

The 2006-2007 United States Skeleton season began on Nov. 1. Since then, it has been pretty smooth sliding for Matt, with only a couple of bumps along the way.

Even before the season began, Matt received an honor from the U.S. Olympic Committee. Matt resides at the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid. Each month, a resident is named Athlete of the Month, and Matt was selected the October athlete. He was chosen based upon his dedication to the sport of skeleton and the determination and progress he has displayed.

The sliding season opened with U.S. Skeleton National Team Trials. Thirty-one athletes competed in six races to determine who would be on the World Cup and National Teams. The first three races were held Nov. 1-3 at the Olympic Sports Complex in Lake Placid. In the first race, Matt slid runs of 56.51 and 56.00 down the mile-long track and landed in third place among the men. On the second day, Matt's two runs, though faster than the previous day, gave him fourth place. Determined to move back into third, Matt accomplished his goal on the final day of sliding at Lake Placid with a combined time of 1:51.16.

The men and women competing for the World Cup and National teams then traveled to Utah Olympic Park in Park City, Utah for the conclusion of the trials. Here, they would slide three more races on Nov. 10-12. Among the men, the competition now tightened. Zach Lund, the 10th ranked skeleton slider in the world, had been unable to compete at Lake Placid. He joined the 14 men who had made the trip west.

Matt's first day of sliding at Park City did not go well. He slammed against the wall on his first run to avoid debris that had blown onto the track and finished seventh. Again, determined to do better, Matt had clean, fast runs the two following days. Position points are awarded to each slider based upon their finishes in each of the contests. Each athlete's weakest race is dropped and his top five races are combined for overall results. At the conclusion of the U.S. Skeleton National Team Trials, Matt was in fourth place. In first was Caleb Smith of Lake Placid, followed by 2006 Olympian Eric Bernotas and Chris Hedquist of Salt Lake City. The top four sliders for the men and women are then the members of the U.S. World Cup Team.

Though Matt finished fourth in the Team Trials, when the men's United States World Cup Team was announced, Matt's name was not included. Lund, who had been suspended for one year because he used a banned hair restorative, had been able to participate in only three of the six races. He applied for a waiver onto the U.S. World Cup Team. Based upon his three first-place finishes at Park City, his waiver was approved. Lund was awarded the fourth men's spot on the World Cup Team.

As the fifth-ranked men's skeleton slider in the United States, Matt chose which competitions he wanted to enter. He selected to begin by racing in the America's Cup Competition. There are six races in the competition „ two in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, two in Lake Placid and two in Park City.

On Nov. 16-17, Matt slid at Calgary. In only his second time on this track, Matt slid a 12th and then a 10th-place finish. Though not happy with the results, Matt did gain points towards overall placement for America's Cup. He vowed to do better at the next two races in Lake Placid.

After a week of rain and warm weather, Dec. 2 was snowy and blustery. Sliding second in a field of 19 men, who represented the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Japan and Russia, Matt immediately set the mark all had to beat. Matt had the fifth-fastest start but drove the cleanest line down the track. His first heat time of 54.74 seconds down the Mount Van Hoevenberg course set a new track record. Eric Bernotas had set the previous record of 54.79 in 2004. Matt's second heat time of 55.54 was also the best. His combined time of 1 minute, 50.28 seconds ran away from the field by 1.62 seconds and earned him a gold medal.

"I knew a track record was possible, but I wasn't so sure given the weather," Matt said. "But the crew worked all night, and it showed. Coming out of (curve) 14, I was dead center and I knew it would be fast." Steve Peter, National Skeleton Sports Manager said, "We (the coaches) knew Matt was coming on, but we didn't think he would come on this fast. He has worked hard." U.S. World Cup Coach Orvie Garrett called from Calgary to congratulate Matt.

Matt's mother Mary Antoine of Prairie du Chien was at Lake Placid to witness Matt's recording-setting race and his two gold medal performances.

"I try to see him two to three times per year," said Mary. "Every time is just as exciting and I never worry about him getting hurt. When I am there, I stay away from him because he is mentally preparing himself."

Mary said that she watches the start of each race when Matt pushes off and gets onto his skeleton sled, which he rides head first down the track. Depending upon the track, skeleton racers can reach speeds of 70 to 80 miles per hour.

Mary has been to Lake Placid before and knows the course and its 19 curves. After Matt pushes off, she watches the electronic timing clock and listens to the announcer describe the run. "I get a chant going in my head, ïFaster, faster, faster,'" she said.

Curve 14 is known as Benham's Bend, and Mary said that she usually expects to see 43 and a few hundreths of a second on the timing clock as Matt completes that curve. On Dec. 2, during Matt's first heat, the clock read 42.16. "When I saw that, I knew it was a good run, but I had no idea it was going to be a track record," she said.

In the first heat of the second race the following day, Matt set a personal record with a 4.99-second push start on the first 50 meters of the track. With a combined time of 1:50.61 in the second race, Matt slid to another gold medal, 1.48 seconds ahead of the rest of the field. With these two medals, Matt has garnered his first international wins. Finishing second in both races was Andy Wood of Great Britain. Yuzuru Hanyuda of Japan was third in the first race and Matt's fellow team member John Daly of Smithtown, New York finished third in the second race. The final America's Cup skeleton competition of the 2006-2007 season is in Park City on Dec. 20-21.

Following his record-setting run and two gold medals in Lake Placid, Matt told his mother, "Well mom, next year it's the World Cup Team." Mary said that the United States Olympic Team is chosen from among the four members of the World Cup Team. Three of the four will earn spots on the U.S. Olympic Team.

Matt will be back in Prairie du Chien for Christmas, then returns to competition. He will be in Park City for the U.S. National Championship the first week in January. In mid-January, he travels to Europe. He will slide on the track at Winterberg, Germany as part of the Europa Cup competitions. Because of his showing in the Team Trials, Matt has already been selected for the U.S. Junior World Team and will compete in the Junior World Championship held in Altenberg, Germany Feb. 6-10, 2007.

Matt said that he thanks all of the people who are supporting him in the Olympic sport of skeleton and his goal of participating in the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.